Gray Star Design is Up!

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I wanted to take a minute to let all of you know my new website is finally done. I recently launched it this week and am very excited for this new venture. You can all now visit me on Gray Star Design! Woohoo!

Gray Star Design is Up!

I am now offering plenty of services that include interior design, event design and of course access to my custom designed items for sale. My Snapshot Sessions are an easy way for me to help people who don’t live local but still give them the tools and information they need to create something beautiful. I am also offering my organizational services for those who need a little help getting their life in order. I am passionate about all of these things and cannot wait to work with new clients.

One of my main focuses for the business is to make my services available to everyone and that means they must be affordable. I take pride in my belief that you don’t need lots of money to have a beautiful home or throw an amazing event. I plan to prove this with Gray Star Design. I can guarantee my rates are less expensive than others in the field and that doesn’t mean you get less. It just means you hired a designer who truly cares about making people happy and doing what she loves.

So feel free to visit my site and take a look around. There is surely plenty to see and read. Like the many resources I include that are awesome shops and artists. And don’t forget to check out my team of experts who are the most talented people I know. They are all great to work with and are highly skilled and creative.

I hope you all enjoy what I have created! To keep up with what I am doing you can sign up for my newsletter and get updates and news. Until next time…

Creating Balance and Harmony at Home Using Feng Shui’s Five Elements

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The art of consciously choosing the designs that support people’s life path is called feng shui. And the aspects of your life you consider as important, such as your family, health, abundance, intimate relationships and creativity, are mirrored by your home. The walls, tables and other accessories you place at home are physical manifestations of your beliefs on life in general. This also applies to the structures, patterns and colors that you surround yourself. Each one sends an energy vibration which may be useful or harmful to you.

Understanding how you use feng shui at home is the key to reaping the energy that helps you live a better life. But first you must determine what chi is moving through your body and your environment. This is where the concept of yin and yang emerges as these two dictate the energy that flows in people’s lives. The presence of too much yin energy has negative impact on health, affects the chi flow and shuts down the body. Meanwhile, an excess of yang energy also results in ill health, most noticeable effect include increased heart rate and blood pressure.

The most important part is to balance the yin and yang energy movements to establish a whole state, thus, paving the way for healing, emotionally, mentally and physically. It is also noteworthy to remember that no person carries an entire yin or yang energy. This is because our energy changes with the current season as well as the food people eat and the time of a day.

Here are the 5 enhancing element energy designs in feng shui that can aid you to controlling the yin and yang chi in your life:

Fire
Fire energy is synonymous with expansion and transformation. This means that you are more open to new ideas and are more willing to sharing your gifts with others.

Guest Post: Creating Balance and Harmony at Home Using Feng Shui’s Five Elements

You can add fire energy at home by using any bright color, such as red or orange, or any active color that helps energy and light to bounce. To send up more energy into a room, use the following shapes: diamonds, triangles, pyramids and sunbursts. You can also add lamps, a carved wooden box, spotlights, lanterns, red or green candles, backlit plants, palm trees or yucca trees, pillars, tall chairs, and any groupings of three.

Guest Post: Creating Balance and Harmony at Home Using Feng Shui’s Five Elements

Earth
Earth helps you become more grounded, thus, helping you to feel more protected, stabilized, secure and safe. Aside from moving downward, earth energy is slow on its motion and is represented by nurturing, soft objects as well as solid, heavy objects.

Guest Post: Creating Balance and Harmony at Home Using Feng Shui’s Five Elements

The goal of earth energy is to serve as reminder to people that the physical body, physical world and physical needs must be given due honor. Earth colors are subdued and are usually represented by yellow and brown. Also, the shapes and structures associated with earth energy stone, adobe, straw and brick. Think of warm cozy blankets, terra-cotta pots, a rock garden, brightly colored pillows, pottery, and pillows

Guest Post: Creating Balance and Harmony at Home Using Feng Shui’s Five Elements

Water
Water energy helps you to a relaxed state where you release the things that have been bothering you for the day. To attain physical and emotional healing, make it a ritual to start your day in a water environment and end it as well on similar surrounding.

Guest Post: Creating Balance and Harmony at Home Using Feng Shui’s Five Elements

Black and dark blue are the water colors, thus, adding white tiles around the bath, a curved path, a white vase, a black or dark blue birdbath. I’ve always loved indoor fountains and this copper fountain has stolen my heart, and hanging plants are perfect ways to experience water energy.

Guest Post: Creating Balance and Harmony at Home Using Feng Shui’s Five Elements

Wood
Wood energy manifests creativity and growth in your life.

Guest Post: Creating Balance and Harmony at Home Using Feng Shui’s Five Elements

Definitely not pastel, wood colors bring in clarity and energy in your life. And these are purple to allow expression and bring in abundance as well as green to grow and heal at the same time. To ensure growth is achieved, you must not pick colors that are too muddy or have lots of gray. Objects that are related to wood include vertical blinds, flowing curtains, a blue or green vase, sloping or tall furniture pieces.

Metal
Metal represents the mind energy, with two essential aspects: the intellectual left-brained and the creative right-brained. Too much of this energy, however, can influence people to be sarcastic and overly critical of others.

For the left-brained, the colors associated are gray, white and silver. These are most beneficial for people engaged in accounting or computer programming or any job that requires detailed tasks. To avoid any sharp edge, you can color your room with a soft warm color as well or just opt for creamy or rosy white. For the right-brained, rainbow colors are ideal to bring out your creativity at the same time allow body healing.

Adding bells, metal chimes, a brick pathway, long comfortable sofa, low, wide furniture will bring in the metal energy in your life

Written by Marial Samuels 

Historic Series: Reverend Prime House

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Still standing at 18 Spring Road in Huntington, Reverend Ebenezer Prime’s second home was his sanctuary during the later years of his life. Originally, the house faced the south but after several generations, new owners turned the main entrance facing west.

Historic Series: Reverend Prime House - Copyright 2012 Melissa O'Connor

The home has the usual colonial style clapboard structure of that time. Its geometric design somewhat resembles the Prime House down the street with the placement of its windows. The main entrance also features two vintage porch lights that seem to be true to the house. Although, the home looks updated, there is a clear history to the structure that one cannot miss.

Historic Series: Reverend Prime House - Copyright 2012 Melissa O'Connor

Historic Series: Reverend Prime House - Copyright 2012 Melissa O'Connor

Ebenezer Prime was born in 1700 in Connecticut. He graduated from Yale College when he was 18, came to Huntington in 1719, and was ordained on June 5, 1723. He was an understanding minister and allowed even non-Christians to receive the sacraments.  Prime baptized every child born during that time within three days of birth.

His home fell victim to the British during the American Revolution with the house seized and the library destroyed. This library was of great importance because the town commissioned him in 1759 to purchase books and keep them as a collection. There were imports from England as well as Greek and Latin versions of text.

Historic Series: Reverend Prime House - Copyright 2012 Melissa O'Connor

The townspeople were allowed to borrow the books for a certain amount of time but had to pay fines when they were late or damaged. Eventually all 155 books in the collection were of religious text and none were fiction. Known as the Library Keeper, Prime led the way for the library’s 39 members until 1768 when it ended.

The Rev. Prime married three times, all within a 13 year-period, with each marriage ending in the death of his wife. His only son to live up to adulthood was Benjamin Youngs Prime, who later became a doctor in New York City and also practiced in Huntington where he met his future wife, Mary Wheelwright Greaton.  They had five children.

Although the Rev. Prime died in 1779, his memories are clearly noticed throughout his home and the town church. He had a number of published texts that are well preserved.

Shop of the Month: Dear Ida

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So I recieved an email from Brian who is a member of the Dear Ida team and husband of the very talented Lisa Mundorff, illustrator extraordinaire. He shared some info on their company and said hello. I thought that was cool to send a little message my way. As I looked through their website I had to feature them and spread the word.

Dear Ida

I know custom cards are everywhere but Dear Ida is different. Brian and Lisa started the business after years of getting rave reviews from their illustrated holiday cards. Family and friends just couldn’t get enough of the Lisa’s illustrations of their kids. So the lightbulb went off and Dear Ida was born. Add Anna and Andy to the equation and you got a unique team of creatives who are “cutting through the clutter of cookie cutter greetings.”

Dear Ida

Now anyone can visit their website and browse through their gallery of unique designs and be able to send a fun, quirky, custom card to their loved ones. How cool is it to have your family custom drawn and presented in Lisa’s illustrations? So cool! You just choose a background and send pictures of your family or whoever you want drawn and within 2 weeks you could have holiday cards pretty enough to frame. Here are some of my faves.

Dear Ida

Dear Ida

Dear Ida

Dear Ida

Dear Ida